International law firm Pinsent-Masons offers an illuminating discussion of violence in video games and analyzes the "great divide" in censorship measures adopted in the U.K. and the U.S. The "great divide" is also an apt term to apply to the gap between research on the consequences of exposure to violence in video games, and the hype to which fear [...]
In Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights (FAIR), the Supreme Court upheld the 1996 Solomon Amendment, which requires universities receiving federal funding to allow military recruitment on campus.
Poor Jay Bennish, the teacher in Aurora, Colorado, who criticized aspects of the State of the Union address in his 10th grade geography class. Too bad he didn’t like it. Too bad one of his students was secretly recording the class.
The US Food and Drug Administration recently announced that it found no "sound scientific" evidence to support medical use of marijuana, disregarding contrary findings by the National Academy of Science Institute of Medicine in 1999.
Issue 101, Spring 2006 On September 30, 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published “The face of Mohammed,” 12 cartoons (including the one at right, by Arne Sørensen) accompanied by an article in which editor Flemming Rose commented provocatively, "The modern, secular society is rejected by some Muslims. They demand a special position, insisting on special consideration of their own [...]
"Manipulation of information has been a basic matter of policy – used to overwhelm dissent."
Update: On July 27, the House voted 410-15 in favor of the Deleting Online Predators Act. Having passed in the House, the bill now goes to the Senate. Hopefully, DOPA will not be rushed through the Senate as it was in the House, giving Senators time to think beyond the bill’s name and understand its true implications. The Deleting Online [...]
Reprinted from patriciapolacco.com. For details on Polacco's allegations and SRA/McGraw Hill's Response, see School Library Journal. To All Educators, Librarians, and Media Specialists Regarding the cancellation of my appearance at the IRA in Chicago for May 2 and 3, 2006: A few months, ago I was approached by The Buchanan Associates in Dublin, Ohio, to appear at the International [...]
The web is still abuzz with discussion of Stephen Colbert's keynote address at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner. If you missed his performance, you can see it here. The roast has generated such a preponderance of discussion, criticism (of both the press corps and Colbert himself), and even fawning admiration, it seems useful to point our readers [...]
University claims its choice to close an exhibit of visual art by Palestinian teenagers "isn't censorship." Brandeis student Lior Halperin (read an interview with Lior at Democracy Now!) curated "Voices from Palestine," an exhibit of visual art by Palestinian teenagers, to bring a different viewpoint to the campus. But four days into a two-week exhibition, school administrators have [...]
In early June 2007, Norman Siegel, the students' attorney, announced details of a settlement between the students and the Parks Department. The city promised to pay a total of $56,750 in damages: $750 to each of the eighteen students and a participating professor, plus $42,500 for the students' legal fees.
By Jamie Malernee South Florida Sun-Sentinel May 5, 2006 A 10-year-old Coral Springs girl won't be allowed to sing a controversial President Bush-bashing ballad at her school talent show after her principal deemed it inappropriate and too political. The song, Dear Mr. President, performed and co-written by the singer Pink, criticizes the president for the war in Iraq and other [...]
Rep. David Wu (D-OR) has written an open letter to the GAO that requests follow up on allegations of "political litmus tests for science appointees, manipulation of scientific findings and reports by political appointees, and politically driven censorship of scientists." The text of the letter is reproduced below: David M. Walker Comptroller General Government Accountability Office 441 G Street, NW [...]